It is becoming a habit for African athletes to travel to Western countries to represent their countries in sports activities only to go AWOL while there.

A Nigerian coach and two athletes have gone missing in the Gold Coast, Australia, venue of the just concluded 2018 Commonwealth Games. Three Nigerians consisting of the head coach of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, a coach in the special sports, and a 200m runner, all disappeared at the competition venue. 

The President of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Mohammed Yahaya has described the disappearance as a "big embarrassment". A furious Yahaya told said he didn’t expect the head coach of a national team to "escape" at a competition venue.

He said: "This is very embarrassing to us because as a head coach, I expected him to act like father to the athletes. But our head coach disappeared into the thin air even before the Games were concluded."